A couple weeks ago someone made an entry on livejournal about her addiction to the Cherry Limeade from Sonic. The post itself wasn't very interesting but it triggered a thought in my head. Since I don't go out much anymore unless I'm forced to, I don't end up paying much attention to new restaurants and stores that pop up in the area. There have been times where I'll comment to someone about the 'new' something or other only to find out from them that it's actually been open for the past 9 months. In this case, I recalled that a Sonic had just opened up nearby and my curiosity was piqued.

For those who aren't aware, Sonic is a fast food restaurant similar to McDonalds or Burger King. Where it differs is that Sonic may very well be the last large drive_IN_ restaurant in the country. Every fast food joint has a drive through nowadays but drive-ins are a thing of the past. Nowadays you only see them in old movies as a place where teenagers with slicked back hair and hoop skirts would congregate as waitresses on roller skates would bring out their order of burgers and fries. Sonic is the last vestige of this once proud tradition, which lately has gone the way of the drive-in movie theater and sock hops.

I actually wasn't aware of any of this going in, and only decided to do some more research after posting about Sonic on facebook. It's that time of the month when I have to make the trek to the hospital to pick up my prescriptions and I thought it might be a good opportunity to swing by and visit Sonic. I posted on facebook to see if anyone had any suggestions for what I should order and received an avalanche of opinions and goodwill. It turns out that Sonic is an institution and beloved by many. I was repeatedly steered toward the aforementioned Cherry Limeade and informed that they have a daily 'Happy Hour' where all drinks are half price. That sounded like a pretty good deal to me and so I decided to stop by today after my trip to the hospital.

This isn't actually a picture I took myself but it gives you the idea. Everything is bright and colorful at Sonic and I saw quite a few cars already pulled in to the drive-in slots with servers bringing out meals. I was shocked to actually see that they were indeed on rollerskates. ROLLERSKATES! In litigious America no less. Just imagine the potential liability if a car-hop skated her way into traffic and got turned into a road pizza. For just a moment, I was infused with the happy nostalgia of a bygone era.

I managed to shake off my happy reverie as I steered my car to the drivethrough and began perusing the menu. The burgers and other offerings seemed pretty lackluster, but there were an impressive number of drink possibilities. My eyes also lit up when I saw that they had corndogs avaliable. In the end I decided to order a couple of corndogs, a large cherry limeade, and a large cherry slushie. I almost immediately began to munch on the corndogs, which while not anything special, still brought me a moment of happiness. That joy was amplified when I took a swig of the cherry slushie. It was fantastic. I know it sounds stupid but it's harder to make a good slushie than you might think. You have to get the perfect consistency so that you don't end up sucking all the flavored goodness out and are left with a block of white ice by the end. This is my main complaint against slurpees. You also have to flavor the slushie just right so that it's not too incredibly sweet at the beginning, yet remains sweet enough as the ice melts and dilutes the mixture. Sonic had gotten it perfectly right and I was in slushie heaven.

I also sampled the Cherry Limeade, which wasn't bad but I had already fallen head over heels for the slushie. The limeade had an interesting bite from the limes and I was also surprised to discover that there was also an actual cherry inside. When I got home I popped the Cherry Limeade into the fridge but the slushie came with me upstairs. I was a little disturbed to discover that a a large Cherry Slushie has an astounding 630 calories in it, but it might be worthwhile to bloat myself to 300 pounds if I can spend my days slurping on slushies. I don't know when I'll next venture out but if I'm lucky there will be another slushie in my future.

So europe has never had them, even back in the 50's? They, along with drive-in movie theaters, were a byproduct of the infatuation this country had with the car. People loved their cars they wanted to be able to do everything in it.

Well, neither was I, but it was part of the culture. Remnants of it remained in old movies and the like. The last drive-in movie theater didn't close in NJ until around 15 years ago and I remember driving past it even if we never went.

Sitting in the car isn't exactly a comfortable experience for me anymore so it's probably not something I woudl want to prolong for a meal. It's just nice to know that some of them are still around from a nostalgia point of view.